Panel

The role of water in settlement processes of Southeast Asia

Anne Valérie Schweyer (researcher, Centre Asie du Sud-Est, CNRS/EHESS, Paris) avschweyer@free.fr

Olivier Teissier (Ecole française dExtrême-Orient, Hanoi) otessier2002@yahoo.fr

This panel aims at bringing together specialists from various disciplines to investigate the role of water in settlement processes, in the organisation of space and societies. We would like each participant to deal with her/his specific case study with her/his own methodology. We would exclude from this panel studies on contemporary water issues, unless they deal with long term social evolutions. Water may be said to have played a founding role in Southeast Asia. Rivers and riparian environment, the sea and coastal contexts are most often met in this part of the world. Insular Southeast Asia straddles the Equator, while its Continental counterpart lies downstream from the great Asian water castle. Lakes and water streams have played a major role in the formation of landscapes, and appear prominently in representations and practices of local societies. One could also emphasize the links between management of water and political control over populations. Abundant new archaeological data – from prehistoric to protohistoric and historic times – have surfaced in recent years and past interpretations need reconsideration. Peter Boomgaard has recently edited a stimulating first approach to these questions (A World of Water, 2008), which still needs to be complemented, given the multiplicity of questions that need to be posed regarding this question. The following questions could be examined in this panel: the structuring role of rivers in the organisation and control of space, and in migration processes; water management in specific agro-cultural contexts (between too much and not enough water); water in the city, and the role of canals in ancient urban patterns; perceptions and practices which result in avoidance of water (Vietnamese phobia) or in chosen proximity to water (Malay tropism); etc.